In Boundary Street, the offices of Alan Kenney of Kenney Brokers were the target of two break-ins in a short period of time. In August, a thief entered the building by crawling up to the window in the early hours of the morning on Wednesday, August 16. “He is someone who is confident and knows how alarm systems work, and unfortunately he knows how long it takes until the security company arrives.
He entered at the entrance of the building which did not have an alarm at the time because I have tenants, but it has been updated in the meantime. He then crawled into the offices and stole money and two laptops. “He then went to a third office which detected him, but he still managed to steal a third laptop,” Kenney told the Herald. He said the break-in was reported to the police, but the thief did not leave any fingerprints and he could not be identified as he wore a balaclava.
On Friday, September 1, Kenney’s offices were again the target of a break-in. “This time they did not take anything, and it was during load shedding, so my cameras were off. They broke the window to get in,” he said. In the past months, residents have been reporting a spate of break-ins on social media. In a report by the Herald published on July 21 this year, residents reported being targeted by thieves by apparently using duplicate keys.
Also read: Robberies at Tzaneen premises increase
A resident in Park Street posted on a security WhatsApp group that she was the target of a break-in where she believed the thief had keys to her house. “… there was a man in my house on Wednesday morning, 04:00. He must have taken the keys from my fiancé’s house (which he broke into at about 03:00) in Peace Street. I fired a shot after warning him. He got a fright and ran.
The security guys came but found nothing. We at least found the keys the next day, but only after the locks were changed. Quite a lot of activity on Park Street,” she reported. Herald contacted the Tzaneen police spokesperson, Sgt Maurice Nkhwashu, for comment. He said that in August, 28 break-ins were reported, 14 at residences and 14 at businesses.
